Mental Break

Taking about an hour break from studying and everything for the last hour before my class. I think I figured out one of the things that was plaguing me last night (how to find error degrees of freedom in a split-plot design) and now I'm drinking coffee, listening to NPR online, and trying not to hyperventilate about the upcoming exam. I am not, I might add, at work. After a 9.5hr day yesterday (8 of which were spent in consultation with Dr. Black) I needed a change of scenery; my sunny, cozy little living room fit the bill.
I'm bummed because I can't find the thingy that lets me put pics on to the computer from the camera. Hopefully we'll find it when we move in roughly two weeks....aaaahhh, hadn't realized the move was so soon! Next week will have to be spent looking for boxes and trying to decide what needs to stay out for the remainder of the month, and what can be packed away. Poor Caley, I feel so bad that he will be moving everything without me. However, it will probably go more smoothly without my low-blood-sugar-induced-crankiness/stressed outness :) Moving has always been a highly irksome adventure, someday we will be in one place for more than a school year.
After the stats exam I will immediately begin work on the take-home exam for BDV which is due by email at 5pm on Friday. For all the previous exams I have been able to use a full week, this one will only get 2.5 days....should be fun! I actually don't mind that kind of exam too much, as long as there aren't any questions I have to dig too much to find answers for I should be ok.
Also, (geez, lots has happened in the past couple of weeks!) I now have a full graduate committee. We will be meeting on Friday for about an hour just as a preliminary sort of thing. I'm not sure what I should bring/be prepared for, but I'm going to bring the GS6 form, and a rough idea of what my project aims should be. I think I've already accomplished the first aim which is to characterize populations of mosquitoes from Tapachula and the lab to determine unique haplotypes to be used as genetic markers. I guess the second aim would be to create the genetic markers, and the third aim would be to evaluate the strains for insecticide resistance, and I'm not sure if I need to look at vector competence as well or not, or if I have to evaluate fitness etc...hmmmmmmmm I guess that's what the meeting is for! Hopefully there won't be too many surprises and I'll come away with a better idea of how to finish this thing up next year!

Wish me luck, I'll need it!
-Megan